An enterprise content management system provides online access to content stored using digital technology, information formerly available only on paper, microfilm, or microfiche. An enterprise content management system generates new metadata about content as the content is checked in and out. Information about how and when content is used can enable an enterprise content management system to generate new filtering, routing and search pathways, and retention-rule decisions. In addition, an enterprise content management system provides access to data about email and instant messaging, which may be used in business decisions. The audit trail generated by an enterprise content management system enhances document security, and provides metrics to help measure productivity and identify efficiency.
Because many documents may cross multiple departments and affect multiple processes, an enterprise content management system provides integrated solutions for multiple departments and systems. For example, imaging, document management, and workflow can be combined in a customer service department to enable customer service agents to better resolve customer inquiries. Likewise, an accounting department may access supplier invoices from an electronic resource management system, access purchase orders from an imaging system, and access contracts from a document management system as part of an approval workflow. Similarly, an organization may present information via the World Wide Web, which requires managing web content.
In enterprise content management systems, data objects are stored by many heterogeneous repositories. An electronic discovery product can search and collect data objects from these heterogeneous repositories. The probability of having duplicate objects, such as documents and emails, stored by these repositories is very high.